Hauling and lifting apparatus



Jan. 30, 1962 Filed Nov. 6, 1959 M. HUTCHINSON HAULING AND LIFTING APPARATUS Jan. 30, 1962 M. HUTCHINSON HAULING AND LIFTING APPARATUS 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Nov. 6, 1959 Jan. 30, 1962 M. HUTCHINSON 3,018,999

HAULING AND LIFTING APPARATUS Filed NOV. 6, 1959 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 I Jan. 30, 1962 Filed Nov. 6, 1959 M. HUTCHINSON HAULING AND LIFTING APPARATUS 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 United States Patent M 3,018,999 HAULING AND LIFTING APPARATUS Myles Hutchinson, Gatesliead, England, assignor of onehalf to Clarke, Chapman & Co. Limited, Gateshead, England, a company of Great Britain Filed Nov. 6, 1959, Ser. No. 851,460 Claims priority, application Great Britain Nov. 10, 1958 2 Claims. (61. 254-184) The present invention relates to steam-powered hauling and lifting apparatus, particularly as used on board ship and usually referred to as ships deck auxiliaries, such as windlasses with or without anchor cable-lifters, cargo winches and capstans.

The invention has for an object to provide improved steam-powered driving means for hauling and lifting apparatus, with the advantages of elimination of vibration resulting from the use of reciprocating engines, total enclosure with a high degree of dynamic balance, quieter and cleaner operation of the driving means, and flexibility of control.

The invention provides a ships deck auxiliary, having a reversible steam turbine driving unit connected to the drive member of said auxiliary through a reduction gearing, and means for controlling the admission of steam for driving of the turbine with equal power output in either direction.

A steam turbine driving unit for a ships deck auxiliary may be mounted thereon in any convenient disposition, being small in relation to the machinery of the hauling or lifting apparatus. For example, in a Windlass comprising a warping shaft with a pair of warping drums on its ends, and two gear pinions driving co-axial gear wheels each associated with a cable-lifter, the worm wheel of a worm reduction gear may be secured to said warping shaft between'the pinions, with the driving worm horizontally above it and connected by a shaft extending between said gear wheels to the shaft of the turbine mounted at the other side of said gear wheels. A turbine driving unit for a capstan may be mounted on a vertical or horizontal axis in association with worm or spur reduction gear, either in suspension below a deck on which the capstan is mounted or on a lower deck with a vertical drive shaft extending between the two decks. In a winch a turbine driving unit may be coupled to the worm shaft of a worm reduction gear, the final driven wheel of which is secured on the shaft car rying the winch drum with or without warping drums, the axis of the turbine being horizontal or vertical and in a plane perpendicular to the plane of said drum shaft, or the driving unit may be disposed parallel to such a drum shaft and drive it through a spur reduction gear.

A driving unit for a Windlass or other shipsauxiliary hauling or lifting apparatus may comprise a reversible steam turbine which has two substantially equal systems of elements each reactive to steam directed thereon from suitably disposed nozzles and mounted for rotation about a common shaft, and control means for selectively directing steam to either of said systems to enable driving of the shaft with equal power output in either direction.

An embodiment of a ships Windlass with cablealifters according to the invention, and driving units for the same, will be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, wherein:

FIGS. 1 and 2 are respectively a plan view and a side elevation of such Windlass.

FIG. 3 is an end elevation of a turbine driving unit,

FIG. 4 is an axial section on the line lV-IV of FIG. 3,

FIG. 5 is an end elevation, with one half of an end cover removed, of another turbine driving unit, and

3,0133% Patented .lan. 30, 1962 FIG. 6 is an axial section through FIG. 5.

Referring to the drawings, FIGS. 1 and 2 show a conventional ships Windlass, symmetrical about the centre line AA, the drive member of which is a warping shaft 1 fitted with a warpend drum 2 at each end. The shaft 1 carries two pinions 3, each of which is in mesh with a gear wheel 4 having clutch means 5, operable by a lever 6, screwed rod 7 and handle 8, for connecting or disconnecting the wheel 4 to or from a cable-lifter 9. Each cable-lifter has a hand brake 10 with an operating screwed rod 11 and handle 12. The base 26 of the Windlass cornprises a pair of chain locker pipes 27, one below each of the cable-lifters 9.

The warping shaft 1 is mounted in inner and outer pairs of bearings 14 and 15, and according to the invention this shaft is driven through a reduction gear 16, mounted between the bearings 14, by a steam turbine 17 connected by a coupling 18 to the input shaft 19 of the gear in. The turbine 17 has a single slide valve in a housing 2.0 and operable by a lever 21 for admitting high temperature steam from a supply pipe 22 for' driving the turbine with equal power output in either direction under the overall control of a valve 23. The casing of turbine 17 is connected to an exhaust pipe 24, having a control valve 25, for the return of exhaust steam to a condenser and thence to a boiler for re-use.

The arrangement of a Windlass with a reversible steam turbine drive as shown, as compared with a like apparatus incorporating a reciprocating steam engine, has the advantages of cleanliness and simplicity of construction and operation, total enclosure of the working parts from damage by sea-water, lightness in weight, and quietness and freedom from vibration under all conditions of speed and load in either direction.

A turbine 17 as shown, which is evidently small and compact in relation to the bulk of the Windlass, may have an output of about 65 H.P. at 1000 rpm. using steam at about 150 lbs/square inch working pressure. This is capable of driving either of the cable-lifters 9 at 30-75 feet per minute under a load of 22 /2 metric tons, or either of the warpend drums 2 at feet'per minute under a load of 8 metric tons, or at 325 feet per minute with a slack rope. It can use high temperature and high pressure steam with economy, in that it exhausts to the pipe 24 oil-free steam which is available for return direct to a condenser and boiler system for re-use.

One form of reversible steam turbine driving unit 17 as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 has a rotor comprising a single disc 31 mounted on a shaft 32 within a cylindrical casing comprising a lower part 33 with end half walls 34, pedestals 35 and an exhaust port 36, an upper half part 37 with a hemi-cylindrical flange 38, and an upper half end cover 39. The rotor shaft 32 carries at one end a governor 40, and at its other end is attached to the coupling 18 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

The blade system mounted on the rotor 31 comprises two sets of oppositely directed, radial blade elements 41 and 42, one inside the other. Each blade comprises in outward succession a root portion 43, a blade portion 41 pitched in one helical sense, a segment 44 of a frustoconical partition ring, a blade portion 42 pitched in the opposite helical sense, and a segment 45 of a frusto-conical shroud ring,

Between the two rings of rotary blades as shown in FIG. 4, a fixed segment of inwardly directed re-entrant blades 46 is mounted on the casing flange 38, the blades 46 being complementary in form to therotary blades to provide two series of parallel flow paths divergent in opposite directions for steam supplied through two oppositely directed sets of nozzles 47, 49 mounted respectively inside the walls 37 and 39 and in communication with segmental steam chests 51, 52 integrally formed in said walls. Each of the nozzle sets 47, 49 may comprise, for example, four nozzles in a part-circular series, each nozzle being flared symmetrically about a centre line which is oblique by an angle of about 180 to the transverse plane. The inner nozzle set 47 may subtend at the axis of shaft 32 an angle of about 125, each nozzle having a mouth about 4" long by /2" deep, while the outer nozzle set 49 subtends an angle of about 108 with each nozzle having a mouth about 3.7" long by /2" deep.

Steam is admissible to one or other of the segmental steam chests 51, 52 under the control of a valve as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 which differs somewhat from the valve 20 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The valve chest 53, with a steam inlet branch 54 beneath it, has two outlet ports 55 and 56, either of which may be put into communication with the branch 54 while the other is closed, by means of a horizontally slidable valve. This may be either a fiat faced slide valve, or a double piston valve, and is displaceable by a lever 57 through suitable mechanism. The outlet port 56 communicates directly with the steam chest 52, and the outlet port 55 communicates with the steam chest 51 by way of an axial passage 58 (FIG. 4) formed in a boss upon the outside of the flange 38 of casing part 37, and a complementary boss 59 upon casing part 39, to which the valve chest 53 is secured by a flange 60.

Evidently, modified forms of radial blade turbines may be employed. For example the rotor 31 may carry a single ring of blades wherein the boundaries of helical blade portions such as 41 and 42 are parallel to the axis, so that the partition ring and shroud ring sections equivalent to parts 44 and 45 are part-cylindrical, sets of nozzles such as 47 and 49 being arranged on one side of the blade ring, one inside the other, and a block providing snail-form re-entrant nozzles being fixed in the casing n the other side of the blade ring.

Another suitable form of turbine driving unit is diagrammatically shown in FIGS. and 6. In this turbine a rotor 61 mounted on shaft 62 has a thick rim 63 in which are formed two annular series of D-shaped slots or cups 64 and 65, oblique to radial planes in opposite directions as shown in FIG. 5. Steam is directed into the cups 64- by a horizontal nozzle 66 and into the cups 65 by a vertical nozzle 67, both mounted in a block 68 in an upper corner of a rectangular casing 69 which has at a lower corner on exhaust branch 70.

The nozzles 66 and 67 are disposed in alignment with their rings of cups 64 and 65, each towards one of the transverse walls 71 and 72 of the casing. The block has passages 74 and 75 for steam from two ducts 76 and 77. Admission of steam from a steam chest 73, with an inlet branch 78, to one of the ducts 76 or 77 while the other is closed, is controlled by a slide valve 79 displaceable by a nut 80 upon a screwed shaft 81 which is operable by a hand Wheel 82. Segmental blocks 84 and 85,'having snail-form re-entrant nozzle recesses, are socured within the casing adjacent the nozzles 66 and 67 to invert steam issuing from the cups 64 and 65 and redirect it into other cups of the same series.

Evidently, a ships deck auxiliary with a steam turbine driving unit according to the appended claims has numerous advantages over similar apparatus provided as heretofore with a reciprocating steam engine, including the elimination of vibration due to the fact that the turbine rotor can have optimum dynamic balance; the ability to use steam at high pressure and high temperature, and to return oil-free exhaust steam direct to a condenser and boiler system, thus enabling the auxiliaries to be operated with main boiler steam and eliminating the need for auxiliary boilers; lightness in weight; simple total enclosure of the working parts and protection thereof from damage by seawater, which is cumbersome and costly to achieve with a reciprocating steam engine; and flexibility of control for rapid change of speed and smooth and easy reversal.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A ships Windlass comprising a warping shaft,

warpend drums on said shaft, two gear pinions on said shaft, two coaxial gear wheels each engaged with one of said pinions, two cable-lifters each co-axial and contiguous with one of said gear wheels, clutch means operable to connect and disconnect each of said cable-lifters to and from its contiguous gear Wheel, and brake means associated with each cable-lifter, and having driving means comprising a Worm reduction gear, a driven worm Wheel in said reduction gear secured to said warping shaft between said pinions, a driving worm shaft of said reduction gear disposed in a plane perpendicular to said warping shaft between said gear wheels, a reversible steam turbine driving unit mounted at the side of said gear wheels remote from said warping shaft, a drive shaft of said turbine aligned With and coupled to said worm shaft, a single disc rotor mounted on said drive shaft, a casing affording a single chamber enclosing said rotor, two substantially equal systems of elements mounted for rotation upon said rotor and oppositely reactive to steam jets directed thereon, two nozzle systems within said casing each to direct steam upon one of said systems of oppositely reactive elements, two steam chests each communicating with one of said nozzle systems, and control means for the admission of steam to either of said steam chests while the other is closed to enable driving of said shaft with equal power output in either direction.

2. A winch having a winding drum, a shaft on which said drum is secured, a speed reduction gear, a final driven member of said reduction gear secured to said shaft, a driving member of said reduction gear, a reversible steam turbine, a drive shaft of said turbine coupled to said driving member, a single disc rotor mounted on said drive shaft, a casing affording a single chamber enclosing said rotor, two substantially equal systems of elements mounted for rotation upon said rotor and oppositely reactive to steam jets directed thereon, two nozzle systems within said casing each to direct steam upon one of said systems of oppositely reactive elements, two steam chests each communicating with one of said nozzle systems, and control means for the admission of steam to either of said steam chests while the other is closed to enable driving of said shaft with equal power output in either direction.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 116,357 Roth June 27, 1871 901,385 Rowan et al. Oct. 20, 1908 927,200 Wick July 6, 1909 986,472 De Laval et al. Mar. 14, 1911 1,310,022 Jungren July 15, 1919 1,423,459 Schmidt July 18, 1922 1,461,699 De Santis July 10, 1923 1,686,971 Holmes Oct. 9, 1928 FOREIGN PATENTS 255,484 Germany Jan. 9, 1913 

